Mumbai, Nov 20 – Maharashtra recorded a voter turnout of 58.75 per cent in elections to 288 assembly seats on Wednesday with Naxal-hit Gadchiroli district coming on top with 69.63 per cent polling, while Mumbai City finished at bottom with 49 per cent, poll officials said.
Voting was held amid sporadic violence as political heavyweights, Bollywood celebrities and business leaders lined up with common citizens to exercise their franchise.
The turnout figures are provisional, they said, adding 61.74 per cent polling was recorded in the 2019 assembly elections. Electoral fate of 4,136 candidates, including 2,086 independents, were locked in EVMs across 288 seats in the state, where the ruling Mahayuti alliance is vying to retain power, while the opposition bloc Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) is hoping for a comeback after losing office in June 2022. Votes will be counted on November 23.
A voter turnout of 53.78 per cent was registered in the bypoll to the Nanded Lok Sabha seat in central Maharashtra. The bypoll was necessitated due to death of Congress sitting MP Vasant Chavan.
Among the ruling Mahayuti constituents, the BJP contested 149 seats, NCP 59 and Shiv Sena 81. In the MVA camp, the Congress fought 101 seats, NCP (SP) 86 and Shiv Sena (UBT) 95.
The Naxal-hit Gadchiroli district in eastern Maharashtra recorded 69.63 per cent turnout, the highest among districts in the state. Within the district, the Aheri assembly seat posted 68.43 per cent voting, Armori 71.26 per cent and the Gadchiroli constituency 69.22 per cent.
Mumbai City district recorded 49.07 per cent voting, the lowest in the state, while Mumbai Suburban was slightly better at 52.67 per cent, according to the officials. The Colaba assembly segment in the island city registered 41.64 per cent polling, Mahim 55.23 per cent, Worli 47.50 per cent, Shivadi 51.70 per cent and Malabar Hill 50.08 per cent.
In Mumbai Suburban district, Bhandup polled 60.18 per cent votes, Dahisar 50.98 per cent, Vandre (East) 49.51 per cent.
In Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s Kopri-Pachpakhadi constituency in Thane district, the voter turnout was 55.77 per cent. The overall percentage of Thane district was 50.50 per cent.
In the Nagpur South-West constituency, from where Deputy Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis was in the fray, the voter turnout was 51.54 per cent, the officials said.
In Nagpur district, the average voter turnout was 56.19 per cent.
In Baramati in Pune district, from where Deputy Chief Minister and NCP president Ajit Pawar contested against his nephew Yugendra Pawar, the polling percentage was 62.31 per cent, they added.
In Pune district, the voter turn out was 54.21 per cent. Polling was marred by incidents of vandalism at Parli and a few places in Beed district, and also saw rival party supporters clashing in some places.
District-wise voter turnout was:
Ahmednagar (63.22 pc),
Akola (56.16 pc),
Amravati (58.70 pc),
Aurangabad (60.83 pc),
Beed (60.62 pc),
Bhandara (65.88 pc),
Buldhana (62.84 pc),
Chandrapur (64.48 pc),
Dhule (59.75 pc),
Gadchiroli (69.63 pc),
Gondia (65.09 pc),
Hingoli (61.18 pc),
Jalgaon (56.02 pc),
Jalna (64.17 pc),
Kolhapur (68.57 pc),
Latur (61.43 pc),
Mumbai City (49.07 pc),
Mumbai Suburban (52.23 pc),
Nagpur (56.19 pc),
Nanded (56.69 pc),
Nandurbar (63.72 pc),
Nashik (59.85 pc),
Osmanabad (61.86 pc),
Palghar (61.23 pc),
Parbhani (62.73 pc),
Pune (54. 21 pc),
Raigad (61.35 pc),
Ratnagiri (61.62 pc),
Sangli (64.16 pc),
Satara (64.16 pc),
Sindhdurg (63.98 pc),
Solapur (57.09 pc),
Thane (50.50 pc),
Wardha (63.50 pc),
Washim (57.42 pc),
Yavatmal (61.32 pc).
A clash broke out between Shiv Sena candidate Suhas Kande and independent candidate Sameer Bhujbal in Nandgaon assembly constituency of Nashik district.
A polling booth was vandalised and a worker of the Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP) was assaulted in Parli assembly constituency, where minister Dhananjay Munde of the Ajit Pawar-led NCP was in the fray.
Madhav Jadhav, a local leader of the Sharad Pawar-led party, was assaulted in Bank Colony area of Parli town and the video of the assault went viral on social media, after which a polling booth at Ghatnandur in the constituency was vandalised, an official said.
Some people entered the polling booth at Ghatnandur, threw the EVM on the ground and damaged the furniture in the booth, the official said. The number of candidates this time (4,136) increased by 28 per cent compared to the 2019 assembly elections (3,239 nominees). Among these candidates, 2,086 were independents. Rebels were in the fray in over 150 constituencies, with candidates from the Mahayuti and MVA contesting against their party’s official nominees. There were 1,00,186 polling booths in Maharashtra this time, compared to 96,654 in the 2019. As many as 1,181 polling centres were set up in high-rises and housing societies to boost voting.